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Tag: Water shortages

  • California seeks federal help for salmon fishers facing ban

    California seeks federal help for salmon fishers facing ban

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    SAN DIEGO — California officials want federal disaster aid for the state’s salmon fishing industry, they said Friday following the closure of recreational and commercial king salmon fishing seasons along much of the West Coast due to near-record low numbers of the iconic fish returning to their spawning grounds.

    Dealing a blow to the Pacific Northwest’s salmon fishing industry, the Pacific Fishery Management Council approved the closure Thursday for fall-run Chinook fishing from Cape Falcon in northern Oregon to the California-Mexico border. Limited recreational salmon fishing will be allowed off southern Oregon in the fall.

    Much of the salmon caught off Oregon originate in California’s Klamath and Sacramento rivers. After hatching in freshwater, they spend an average of three years maturing in the Pacific, where many are snagged by commercial fishermen, before migrating back to their spawning grounds, where conditions are more ideal to give birth. After laying eggs, they die.

    “The forecasts for Chinook returning to California rivers this year are near record lows,” Council Chair Marc Gorelnik said after the vote in a news release. “The poor conditions in the freshwater environment that contributed to these low forecasted returns are unfortunately not something that the Council can or has authority to control.”

    Biologists say the Chinook population has declined dramatically after years of drought. Many in the fishing industry say a rollback of federal protections for endangered salmon under the Trump administration allowed more water to be diverted from the Sacramento River Basin to agriculture, causing even more harm.

    “The fact is that just too many salmon eggs and juvenile salmon died in the rivers in 2020 as a direct result of politically driven, short-sighted water management policies, under the prior federal administration, to ‘maximize’ irrigation river water deliveries during a major drought,” said Glen Spain, acting executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “Unfortunately, this purely politically driven mistake will cost our fishing-dependent coastal communities dearly.”

    California fishing industry representatives and elected leaders said federal aid must be released quickly and efforts need to be ramped up to restore salmon habitat in California rivers with better water management, and the removal of dams and other barriers.

    “We have to make sure that the policies and practices and the rest are not such that they are defying the evolutionary progress of salmon,” U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Friday, speaking in San Francisco in the rain, surrounded by fishers who spoke of their concerns about making ends meet during the closure.

    The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the San Francisco Bay area, pledged to push for the Biden administration to act quickly on the state’s request to declare the situation a fishery resource disaster, the first step toward a disaster assistance bill that must be approved by Congress.

    In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo seeking the declaration, the California governor’s office stated that the projected loss of the 2023 season is over $45 million — and that does not include the full impact to coastal communities and inland salmon fisheries.

    California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity and 23,000 jobs annually in a normal season and contributes about $700 million to the economy and supports more than 10,000 jobs in Oregon, according to the Golden State Salmon Association.

    “There’s a lot of fear and panic all up and down the coast with families trying to figure out how they’re going to pay the bills this year,” said John McManus, the group’s senior policy director.

    Experts fear native California salmon are in a spiral toward extinction. Already, California’s spring-run Chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, while winter-run Chinook are endangered along with the Central California Coast coho salmon, which has been off-limits to California commercial fishers since the 1990s.

    Recreational fishing is expected to be allowed in Oregon only for coho salmon during the summer and for Chinook after Sept. 1. Salmon season is expected to open as usual north of Cape Falcon, including in the Columbia River and off Washington’s coast.

    There’s some hope that the unusually wet winter in California, which has mostly freed the state of drought, will bring relief. An unprecedented series of powerful storms has replenished most of California’s reservoirs, dumping record amounts of rain and snow and busting a severe three-year drought. But too much water running through the rivers could also kill eggs and young hatchlings.

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    Baumann reported from Bellingham, Washington.

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  • Some in dry Somalia break Ramadan fast with little but water

    Some in dry Somalia break Ramadan fast with little but water

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    MOGADISHU, Somalia — This year’s holy month of Ramadan coincides with the longest drought on record in Somalia. As the sun sets and Muslims around the world gather to break their daily fasts with generous dinners, Hadiiq Abdulle Mohamed and her family have just water and whatever food might be at hand.

    Mohamed is among more than 1 million Somalis who have fled their homes in search of help while an estimated 43,000 people died last year alone. She and her husband and their six children now take refuge in one of the growing displacement camps around the capital, Mogadishu.

    Ramadan brought an increase in food prices for a country already struggling with inflation caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the withering of local crops by five consecutive failed rainy seasons. Millions of livestock that are central to people’s diets have died.

    Now food is even harder to come by for those displaced. For Ramadan, Mohamed and her family rely on well-wishers to provide their single meal a day. First, they break their fast with water and pieces of dates, then spoons of rice. Finally, they eat the donated meal of rice cooked with mixed meat, bruised banana and a small plastic bag of juice, which Mohamed waits in line for hours under the searing sun to obtain.

    “I recall the Ramadan fast we had in the past when we were enjoying and prospering,” she said. “We would milk our goats, cook the ugali (maize porridge) and collard greens and drink water from our catchment. However, this year we are living in a camp, without plastic to cover us from rain, without food to eat, thirsty and experiencing drought. We have this small hot meal, but do you think that this can feed a family of six children, plus a mother and father? That is not possible.” The family once was prosperous and owned farmland and goats in a village about 140 kilometers (87 miles) west of the capital. Now they try to get by on the little money her husband makes by carrying goods in a wheelbarrow. But food prices have soared so much that his income is no longer enough to buy a 1 kilogram (2.2 pound) bag of rice.

    The inflation in Somalia pinches the more well-off, too. The typical Ramadan fast-breaking meal includes samosas and other snacks; juice and tea and coffee; the main dish of rice or spaghetti or flatbread with camel, goat, chicken or fish; and finally, dessert.

    The Horn of Africa country imports the majority of its food, from Ukraine-grown wheat to the bottles of Mountain Dew stocked in some gleaming Mogadishu shops. Meanwhile, prices of basics like rice and cooking oil continue to rise in parts of the country.

    This month, World Food Program monitoring reported that supply chain resilience was generally good in Somalia, but the spike in demand for Ramadan would be “a disadvantage to vulnerable households who depend on local markets.”

    “We are really experiencing a soaring price of food and another basic commodities,” said Ahmed Khadar Abdi Jama, a lecturer in economics at Somalia University. “Whenever there is an external factor that can reduce the supply of food, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it is more likely that Somalis will feel a low supply.”

    For example, a kilogram of camel meat that cost about $4 before the holy month now costs about $6. But this inflation will subside after the month is over, Khadar said.

    Ramadan is a month of alms and forgiveness throughout the Muslim world. With the growing number of Somalis displaced by the drought, the imams of the mosques in Mogadishu are leading efforts to encourage the city’s wealthy and others who can afford it to sympathize with the poor and give generously.

    “Some people need food to afford to break their fast,” said one imam, Sheikh Abdikarim Isse Ali. “Please help them.”

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    Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed.

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  • California eases water restrictions, but drought isn’t over

    California eases water restrictions, but drought isn’t over

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    DUNNIGAN, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended some of the state’s water restrictions on Friday because a winter of relentless rain and snow has replenished the state’s reservoirs and eased fears of a shortage after three years of severe drought.

    Newsom was careful not to declare the drought to be over, noting water shortages remain in the Klamath River basin along the California-Oregon line and in densely populated Southern California, which relies heavily on the struggling Colorado River system to supply millions of people.

    But Newsom did say he would stop asking people to voluntarily cut their water use by 15%, a request he first made nearly two years ago while standing at the edge of a nearly dry Lopez Lake in the state’s Central Coast region — a lake that today is so full from recent storms it is almost spilling over.

    “None of us could have imagined … a few months ago that we’d be where we are today,” Newsom said Friday from a farm northwest of Sacramento that has flooded some of its fields with excess water so it will seep underground and refill groundwater basins. “Are we out of the drought? Mostly — but not completely.”

    Newsom’s call for voluntary conservation had mixed results. Californians did reduce their water use, but only by 6.2% overall, according to data from the State Water Resources Control Board. Newsom never ordered statewide, mandatory water restrictions — but he did require water agencies to impose some limits on their customers.

    Friday, Newsom said he was easing those rules. That change will impact people in different ways depending on where they live. For most people, it means they won’t be limited to watering their lawns on only certain days of the week or at certain times of the day. Other restrictions will remain in place indefinitely, including a ban on watering decorative grass for businesses.

    “We’ve got to conserve as a way of life,” Newsom said.

    Newsom could ease some restrictions in part because California’s reservoirs are now so full that cities will get more than double the amount of drinking water this year compared to a previous allocation announced last month. Now, water districts that serve 27 million people will get at least 75% of the water they requested from state supplies. Last year, they only got 5% as California endured three of the driest years ever since modern recordkeeping began in 1896.

    “This wet winter, which has led to a large increase in our (water) allocation, is not a signal that we can relax,” said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that supplies water to 19 million people. “It is an alarm to act and accelerate our efforts to respond to rapidly changing conditions, including conservation, storage, recycling and reuse.”

    Last week the district ended mandatory drought restrictions for about 7 million people who rely almost exclusively on state supplies for their water.

    California and the western United States have been in an extended drought for about two decades, a period of abnormal dryness punctuated by occasional intense seasons of storms. It would be tough for a governor “of a large, diverse state that has very diverse water supplies and water demands” to say when a drought has started or ended, said Jay Lund, vice director for the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

    Lund said the drought is over from many perspectives in California, including urban water supply and reservoirs. But it’s not over for the state’s fragile ecosystems and the groundwater aquifers that were depleted during recent drought years.

    “We might never recover them completely,” he said.

    Three years of little rain or snow in California had depleted reservoirs to the point the state couldn’t generate electricity from hydroelectric power plants. It dried up wells in rural areas and state officials had to truck in water supplies for some communities. And it reduced the flow of the state’s major rivers and streams, killing off endangered fish and other species.

    But since December, no less than 12 powerful storms have hit California, packing so much rain and snow that meteorologists call them “atmospheric rivers.” These storms have flooded homes, closed ski resorts and trapped people in mountain communities for days with no electricity, prompting emergency declarations from President Joe Biden.

    “That kind of whiplash is something that we’ve experienced in a very intense way in California that I think is unique across the western U.S.,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources.

    Water has been steadily pouring into the state’s reservoirs since December. Of California’s 17 major reservoirs, 12 of them are either at or above their historical averages for this time of year.

    And more water is coming. Statewide, the amount of snow piled up in the mountains is already 223% above the April 1 average — the date when the snowpack is typically at its peak. Most of that snow will melt in the coming months, flowing into reservoirs and posing more flooding threats downstream.

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  • California ends some water limits after storms ease drought

    California ends some water limits after storms ease drought

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    DUNNIGAN, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom ended some of the state’s water restrictions on Friday because a winter of relentless rain and snow has replenished the state’s reservoirs and eased fears of a shortage after three years of severe drought.

    He also announced local agencies that supply water to 27 million people and many farmers would get much more from state supplies than originally planned. But Newsom did not declare an end to the drought, warning much of the state is still suffering from its lingering effects.

    “Are we out of the drought? Is the drought over in the state of California?” Newsom said. “I want to affirm your instinct that it should be, it feels like it is. It is — and continues to be — complicated. And I know that’s disappointing for some because it would be nice to have a governor say the drought is over.”

    Newsom said he would stop asking people to voluntarily cut their water use by 15%, a request he first made nearly two years ago while standing at the edge of a nearly dry Lopez Lake in the state’s Central Coast region — a lake that today is so full from recent storms it is almost spilling over. Californians never met Newsom’s call for that level of conservation — as of January the cumulative savings were just 6.2%.

    The governor also said he would ease rules requiring local water agencies to impose restrictions on customers. That order will impact people in different ways depending on where they live. For most people, it means they won’t be limited to watering their lawns on only certain days of the week or at certain times of the day. Other restrictions remain in place, including a ban on watering decorative grass for businesses.

    Newsom could ease restrictions in part because state officials said California’s reservoirs are so full they will more than double the amount of drinking water cities will get this year compared to a previous allocation announced last month. Water districts that serve 27 million people will get at least 75% of the water they requested from state supplies. Last year, they only got 5% as California endured three of the driest years ever since modern recordkeeping began in 1896.

    “Is the drought over? Are we going back to normal? I would say no,” Wade Crowfoot, Newsom’s secretary of the California Department of Natural Resources, said Thursday. “It’s really adjusting to a new normal, and that is intensifying extremes — what the governor has called ‘weather whiplash.’”

    Three years of little rain or snow have depleted reservoirs to the point the state couldn’t generate electricity from hydroelectric power plants. It dried up wells in rural areas and state officials had to truck in water supplies for some communities. And it reduced the flow of the state’s major rivers and streams, killing off endangered species of fish and other species.

    But since December, no less than 12 powerful storms have hit California, packing so much rain and snow that meteorologists call them “atmospheric rivers.” These storms have flooded homes, closed ski resorts and trapped people in mountain communities for days with no electricity, prompting emergency declarations from President Joe Biden.

    Amid all that carnage, water has steadily poured into the state’s reservoirs. Of California’s 17 major reservoirs, 12 of them are either at or above their historical averages for this time of year.

    And more water is coming. Statewide, the amount of snow piled up in the mountains is already 223% above the April 1 average — the date when the snowpack is typically at its peak. Most of that snow will melt in the coming months, flowing into reservoirs and posing more flooding threats downstream.

    Newsom did not declare an end to the drought on Friday, even though the U.S. Drought Monitor reported this week that much of the state — including the major population centers along the coast and farmland in the Central Valley — are not in drought.

    Water shortage concerns remain for some areas of the state, including a sizeable chunk of Southern California that relies on water from the Colorado River — a basin that remains in drought. In the north part of the state, portions of the Klamath River basin are still listed as in “severe drought.”

    “We want to avoid this thought that it’s a back to normal situation, because again, in a lot of places, it simply isn’t,” Crowfoot said. “We need to move beyond this idea that we use water in a traditional way, and then when there’s a drought we conserve water.”

    California doesn’t have enough room in its reservoirs to store all of the water from these storms. In fact, some reservoirs are having to release water to make room for new storms coming next week and snowmelt in the spring. That’s why the Newsom administration has given farmers permission to take water out of the rivers and flood some of their fields, with the water seeping back under ground to refill groundwater basins.

    Friday, Newsom made his drought announcement at one of those projects, a farm in the community of Dunnigan, off of Interstate 5 about 37 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento. State officials hope projects like these will replenish some of the groundwater that was pumped out during the drought.

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  • Scientists: Largest US reservoirs moving in right direction

    Scientists: Largest US reservoirs moving in right direction

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    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Parts of California are under water, the Rocky Mountains are bracing for more snow, flood warnings are in place in Nevada, and water is being released from some Arizona reservoirs to make room for an expected bountiful spring runoff.

    All the moisture has helped alleviate dry conditions in many parts of the western U.S. Even major reservoirs on the Colorado River are trending in the right direction.

    But climate experts caution that the favorable drought maps represent only a blip on the radar as the long-term effects of a stubborn drought persist.

    Groundwater and reservoir storage levels — which take much longer to bounce back — remain at historic lows. It could be more than a year before the extra moisture has an effect on the shoreline at Lake Mead that straddles Arizona and Nevada. And it’s unlikely that water managers will have enough wiggle room to wind back the clock on proposals for limiting water use.

    That’s because water release and retention operations for the massive reservoir and its upstream sibling — Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border — already are set for the year. The reservoirs are used to manage Colorado River water deliveries to 40 million people in seven U.S. states and Mexico.

    Still, Lake Powell could gain 45 feet (14 meters) as snow melts and makes its way into tributaries and rivers over the next three months. How much it rises will depend on soil moisture levels, future precipitation, temperatures and evaporation losses.

    “We’re definitely going in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go,” said Paul Miller, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.

    Federal forecasters are scheduled Thursday to roll out predictions for temperature, precipitation and drought over the next three months, as well as the risk for springtime flooding.

    California already has been drenched by a fire hose of moisture from the Pacific Ocean that has led to flooding, landslides and toppled trees.

    Ski resorts on the California-Nevada border are marking their snowiest winter stretch since 1971, when record-keeping began. In fact, the Sierra Nevada is on the verge of surpassing the second-highest snow total for an entire winter season, with at least two months still to go.

    In Arizona, forecasters warned that heavy rain was expected to fall on primed snowpack in the mountains above the desert enclave of Sedona. One of the main creeks running through the tourist town was expected to reach the flood stage and evacuations were ordered for some neighborhoods late Wednesday.

    “We’ve pretty much blown past all kinds of averages and normals in the Lower Colorado Basin,” Miller said, not unlike other western basins.

    Forecasters say the real standout has been the Great Basin, which stretches from the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. It has recorded more snow this season than the last two seasons combined. Joel Lisonbee, with the National Integrated Drought Information System, said that’s notable given that over the last decade, only two years — 2017 and 2019 — had snowpack above the median.

    Overall, the West has been more dry than wet for more than 20 years, and many areas will still feel the consequences.

    An emergency declaration in Oregon warns of higher risks for water shortages and wildfires in the central part of the state. Pockets of central Utah, southeastern Colorado and eastern New Mexico are still dealing with extreme drought, while parts of Texas and the Midwest have become drier.

    Forecasters are expecting warm, dry weather to kick in over the coming weeks, meaning drought will keep its foothold in some areas and tighten its grip elsewhere.

    Tony Caligiuri, president of the preservation group Colorado Open Lands, said all the recent precipitation shouldn’t derail work to recharge groundwater supplies.

    “The problem or the danger in these episodic wet year events is that it can reduce the feeling of urgency to address the longer-term issues of water usage and water conservation,” he said.

    The group is experimenting in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, the headwaters of the Rio Grande. One of North America’s longest rivers, the Rio Grande and its reservoirs have been struggling due to meager snowpack, long-term drought and constant demands. It went dry over the summer in Albuquerque, and managers had no extra water to supplement flows.

    Colorado Open Lands reached an agreement with a farmer to retire his land and stop irrigating the about 1,000 acres. Caligiuri said the idea is to take a major straw out of the aquifer, which will enable the savings to sustain other farms in the district so they no longer face the threat of having to turn off their wells.

    “We’ve seen where we can have multiple good years in place like the San Luis Valley when it comes to rainfall or snowpack and then one drought year can erase a decade of progress,” he said. “So you just can’t stick your head in the sand just because you’re having one good wet year.”

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    Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.

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  • Half of California freed from drought thanks to rain, snow

    Half of California freed from drought thanks to rain, snow

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    Tremendous rains and snowfall since late last year have freed half of California from drought

    ByJOHN ANTCZAK Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES — Tremendous rains and snowfall since late last year have freed half of California from drought, but low groundwater levels remain a persistent problem, U.S. Drought Monitor data showed Thursday.

    The latest survey found that moderate or severe drought covers about 49% of the state, nearly 17% of the state is free of drought or a condition described as abnormally dry. The remainder is still abnormally dry.

    Just three months ago virtually all of California was in drought, including at extreme and exceptional levels. Water agencies serving millions of people, agriculture and industry were told to expect only a fraction of requested allocations.

    The turnabout began with a series of atmospheric rivers that pounded the state from late December through mid-January, building a huge Sierra Nevada snowpack. After a few largely dry weeks, powerful storms returned in February. Water authorities began boosting allocations.

    The monitor shows three regions have received the most benefit from copious precipitation, including snowfall measured in feet rather than inches.

    The central Sierra and foothills are now free of drought or abnormal dryness for the first time since January 2020, the monitor said. The central coast from Monterey Bay to Los Angeles County is also now drought-free, along with two counties on the far north coast.

    “The rain has improved California soil moisture and streamflow levels, while the snow has increased mountain snowpack to much above-normal levels,” the monitor said. “Most California reservoirs have refilled with water levels near or above average, but groundwater levels remain low and may take months to recover.”

    The water content of the Sierra snowpack, which provides about a third of California’s water, is more than 160% of the historical average on April 1, when it is normally at its peak, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

    The U.S. Drought Monitor is a joint project of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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  • Activists call on Trinidad to repatriate citizens in Syria

    Activists call on Trinidad to repatriate citizens in Syria

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on Trinidad & Tobago to repatriate more than 90 of its citizens who have been detained as Islamic State suspects and family members in war-torn Syria, noting that at least 56 of them are children.

    Some of them were whisked to Syria as children by relatives, while others said they erroneously thought they were going to visit a Muslim utopia.

    “These children never chose to live under ISIS, yet they are suffering because of their parents’ decisions,” said Jo Becker, the Human Rights Watch child advocacy director.

    Most of the Trinidadians were detained in late 2018 and early 2019 by U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group in northeast Syria and are currently held in makeshift camps that activists say are dangerous and lack food, water, medical care and education.

    Of the more than 90 Trinidadians detained in Syria, some 21 are women, and 44 of the at least 56 children detained are 12 years old or younger, according to the human rights organization, which said it interviewed six Trinidadians held in camps.

    Among them is a 17-year-old boy whose father took him to Syria in 2014.

    “My father lied to me. He told me that we were going to Disneyland,” the organization quoted the boy as saying. “It’s not my fault. It’s my father’s fault. …. I just want to come back home.”

    A 19-year-old Trinidadian man said: “My dad told me I was going to go to a hotel in Egypt and swim in a pool. I was 11 years old,” according to the organization.

    Trinidad & Tobago has repatriated only a handful of its citizens in recent years despite at least 130 of them traveling to ISIS-held territories from 2013 to 2016, the most people per capita of any country in the Western Hemisphere, according to Human Rights Watch.

    Many of them came from three communities in Trinidad: Rio Claro, Chaguanas and Diego Martin. One of them was even featured as a fighter in an ISIS online magazine.

    Links to terrorism are not rare for the twin-island nation, which was the site of the only Islamic revolt in the Western Hemisphere when a radical group launched a violent coup attempt in 1990. Some of the veterans of that coup have since helped to radicalize families, which in turn have radicalized communities, according to experts.

    With no courts available in northeast Syria to prosecute suspected foreign ISIS members, Human Rights Watch argued that authorities in Trinidad could prosecute citizens once they’re repatriated, noting that a 2005 anti-terrorism act gives officials jurisdiction over those offenses even if they’re committed abroad.

    The office of Trinidad’s prime minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    In 2018, the government created a committee to repatriate and reintegrate Trinidadians from conflict areas, but officials are still working on draft policy and legislation.

    At least 10 countries including neighboring Barbados have repatriated some of their citizens since October last year, according to Human Rights Watch.

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  • Horn of Africa drought trends said worse than in 2011 famine

    Horn of Africa drought trends said worse than in 2011 famine

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    A climate center says the trends in a historic Horn of Africa drought are worse than they were in a 2011 drought in which at least a quarter-million people died

    ByCARA ANNA Associated Press

    February 22, 2023, 8:44 AM

    NAIROBI, Kenya — Trends in a historic Horn of Africa drought are now worse than they were during the 2011 drought in which at least a quarter-million people died, a climate center said Wednesday.

    The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center said below-normal rainfall is expected in the rainy season over the next three months.

    “This could be the sixth failed consecutive rainfall season” in the region that includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the center said.

    The drought, the longest on record in Somalia, has lasted almost three years, and tens of thousands of people are said to have died. More than 1 million people have been displaced in Somalia alone, according to the United Nations.

    Last month, the U.N. resident coordinator in Somalia warned that excess deaths in Somalia will “almost certainly” surpass those of the famine declared in the country in 2011.

    Close to 23 million people are thought to be highly food insecure in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to a food security working group chaired by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

    Already, 11 million livestock that are essential to many families’ health and wealth have died, Wednesday’s statement said. Many people affected across the region are pastoralists or farmers who have watched crops wither and water sources run dry.

    The war in Ukraine has affected the humanitarian response as traditional donors in Europe divert funding to the crisis closer to home. The head of IGAD, Workneh Gebeyehu, urged governments and partners to act “before it’s too late.”

    The IGAD climate center is a designated regional climate center by the World Meteorological Organization.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of the climate and environment at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Scottsdale weighs sharing water again with nearby community

    Scottsdale weighs sharing water again with nearby community

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    SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottsdale will consider a joint plan with Maricopa County that would supply water again to a community that had its access cut off.

    The Scottsdale City Council is scheduled to meet Feb. 21 about a potential new agreement to re-open a supply of water for nearby unincorporated Rio Verde Foothills.

    Under the new proposal, Rio Verde residents would have temporary access to city water for up to three years. The county would try to establish a moratorium on building permits in the impacted area.

    Officials say the agreement is dependent on the city also getting more water resources from a third party. The city would treat the water and make it available for delivery countywide. The city would also get reimbursed for the costs from the county.

    The city’s current drought management plan called for access to be restricted beginning Jan. 1. Scottsdale officials said the city needs to guarantee there is enough for its own residents amid a deep, long-lasting drought.

    Rio Verde residents went to Maricopa County Superior Court last month to request an injunction that would require Scottsdale to temporarily resume water-sharing.

    A judge said the court could not step in on water policy decisions.

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  • Study: Don’t blame climate change for South American drought

    Study: Don’t blame climate change for South American drought

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    Climate change isn’t causing the multi-year drought that is devastating parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia, but warming is worsening some of the dry spell’s impacts, a new study says.

    The natural three-year climate condition La Nina – a cooling of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide temporarily but lasted much longer than normal this time – is the chief culprit in a drought that has devastated central South America and is still going on, according to a flash study released Thursday by international scientists at World Weather Attribution. The study has not been peer reviewed yet.

    Drought has hit the region since 2019 with last year seeing the driest year in Central Argentina since 1960, widespread crop failures and Uruguay declaring an agricultural emergency in October. Water supplies and transportation were hampered, too.

    “There is no climate change signal in the rainfall,” said study co-author Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College in London. “But of course, that doesn’t mean that climate change doesn’t play an important role in the context of these droughts. Because of the extreme increase in heat that we see, the soils do dry faster and the impacts are more severe they would have otherwise been.”

    The heat has increased the evaporation of what little water there is, worsened a natural water shortage and added to crop destruction, scientists said. The same group of scientists found that climate change made the heat wave last December 60 times more likely.

    And cutting down trees in the southern Amazon in 2020 reached the highest rate in a decade and that translates to less moisture being available farther south in Argentina, said study lead author Paola Arias, a climate scientist and professor at the Environmental School of the University of Antioquia in Colombia.

    The team of scientists at World Weather Attribution use observations and climate models to see if they find a climate change factor in how frequent or how strong extreme weather is. They compare what happened to how often it happened in the past, and they run computer simulations that contrast reality to what would have happened in a world without human-caused climate change from burning of fossil fuels.

    In this drought’s case, the models actually show a slight, not significant, increase in moisture from climate change but a clear connection to La Nina, which scientists say is waning. It will still take months if not longer for the region to get out of the drought — and that depends on whether the flip side of La Nina — El Nino — appears, said study co-author Juan Rivera, a scientist at the Argentine Institute for Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences.

    In the past, the team of scientists has found no obvious climate change connection in some droughts and floods, but they do find global warming is a factor in most of the severe weather they investigate.

    “One of the reasons why we do these attribution studies is to show what the realistic impacts of climate change are. And it’s not that climate change makes everything worse,” Otto said. “Not every bad thing that’s happening now is because of climate change.”

    ___

    See more of AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

    ___

    Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

    ___

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Review: Thunberg aims to educate with ‘The Climate Book’

    Review: Thunberg aims to educate with ‘The Climate Book’

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    “The Climate Book,” by Greta Thunberg (Penguin Press)

    Skipping school to sit outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018 with a sign reading “School Strike for Climate” at the age of 15, Greta Thunberg promised she would never stop calling out leaders and governments for refusing to take strong enough actions to mitigate climate change.

    Fast forward five years and while Thunberg is no longer a teenager, she is as blunt as ever. “Leaving capitalist consumerism and market economics as the dominant stewards of the only known civilization in the universe will most likely seem, in retrospect, to have been a terrible idea,” she writes in “The Climate Book.”

    Divided into five parts — How Climate Works, How Our Planet is Changing, How It Affects Us, What We’ve Done About It and What We Must Do Now — the book features 105 guest essays covering everything from “ice shelves to economics, from fast fashion to the loss of species… from water shortages to Indigenous sovereignty, from future food production to carbon budgets.” Thunberg’s goal is to raise public awareness by sharing the best available science to shine a spotlight on what we’ve done to the Earth and what we must do to keep it habitable by humanity.

    Stuffed with charts and graphs and photos spread across two pages (all in black and white, a curious design choice), the book is sure to educate anyone who gives it an honest reading. Yet it’s difficult to shake a feeling of doom as you turn the pages. The current way of life in the “Global North,” as Thunberg calls the leading Western democracies responsible for most of the world’s carbon emissions, is not sustainable. If we continue to insist on flying around the world, eating authentic Japanese sushi in New York, driving our SUVs, and on and on, we will eventually change planetary systems to such a degree that life as we know it won’t be possible.

    Some of the book’s contributors manage to balance the gloom with glimmers of hope. Writing about the remarkable events of the last few years, Canadian public policy researcher Seth Klein finds comfort in the global response to COVID-19: “We witnessed governments… creating audacious new economic support programs with a speed that few would have predicted.” If governments would take a similar approach to electrifying everything with green power, he argues, Homo sapiens might survive. As other essayists point out, however, it’s impossible until the largest governments in the world start treating the climate crisis like a true crisis.

    And so hopefully billions of people read “The Climate Book” and enough of them rise up to demand change. 3.5%. That’s the magic number mentioned by Harvard political science professor Erica Chenoweth in her essay, “People Power”: “Among non-violent movements attempting to overthrow their own governments, none has failed after mobilizing 3.5% of their population to engage in mass demonstrations.” And in the end, that’s Thunberg’s ultimate prescription, too: “I would strongly suggest that those of us who have not yet been greenwashed out of our senses stand our ground.”

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  • Jackson water system a step closer to getting new owners

    Jackson water system a step closer to getting new owners

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    JACKSON, Miss. — Jackson’s troubled water system could be one step closer to getting new owners after legislation passed the state Senate Tuesday.

    It’s the latest development in a crisis that has left residents of Mississippi’s capital without consistent access to running water and has aggravated divisions between the Democratic-led city and the Republican-controlled state government.

    The bill would transfer ownership of Jackson’s water system to a new regional public entity overseen by a nine-member board — with the majority appointed by state leaders. Sponsored by Republican Sen. David Parker of Olive Branch, it passed in a 34-15 vote and will move to the House for more work.

    Parker said he introduced the bill to establish how the water system will be governed after Ted Henifin, the system’s interim manager appointed by a federal court, concludes his work. Parker also said Jackson’s water woes are stymying economic development.

    “This crisis has been a black eye on the city of Jackson. But it’s also been a problem for the state as a whole,” Parker said.

    Parker recounted an incident where a German company was considering expanding to Mississippi. The company asked if the state had running water.

    The water crisis has caused repeated outages in which many of the city’s 150,000 residents have gone days and weeks without water to drink, cook, bathe or flush toilets.

    Democratic senators rebuked the move as a brazen seizure of a city asset and overreach by the state government into Jackson’s affairs.

    “If we’re so concerned about our national reputation, are you aware of how we look right now?” said Sen. John Horhn, a Democrat from Jackson. “Mississippi looks like the old Mississippi that we heard about and some of us have lived through. We look like we are doing a taking on some Black folks.”

    Jackson is an 80% Black city. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is Black, as are most of the lawmakers who represent the city in the state legislature. Lumumba has said he wants the city to maintain control of its water.

    Under the bill’s original version, the Jackson mayor would have four appointments to the regional utility. On two of those, the mayor would have been required to “consult” with the mayors of suburban Byram and Ridgeland. The governor would make three appointments, and the lieutenant governor would make two. All nine would need to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.

    Parker brought a modified version of the bill to the Senate Tuesday, which he said was the product of a meeting with Lumumba. Under the new version the Senate approved, the mayor would not have to consult with the mayors of the smaller cities.

    “This is not a problem that the current mayor of Jackson created, that he had had any control over,” Parker said. “We have been given an opportunity with some federal dollars to try to fix this problem.”

    Henifin has said that he believed Parker’s proposal to create a new regional entity was motivated by a desire by state officials to access a large pot of federal dollars earmarked for the Jackson. Since then, Parker added language to the bill stating that all federal funds should be used within the areas served by Jackson’s water system.

    Parker said he has not met with Henifin, but they have a meeting scheduled later this month. The new version of Parker’s bill also specifies the regional board would be a “corporate nonprofit” — the model favored by Henifin.

    Parker’s district is in northwest Mississippi, but he lives with his daughter at an apartment complex in Jackson when the Legislature is in session. He said scooping up water from the building’s swimming pool to use in their shared apartment’s toilets is part of what prompted him to introduce the bill.

    The Republican-controlled House voted 83-28 Tuesday to pass legislation that says cities must base water bills on the amount of water a customer uses, prohibiting water billing based on the home’s value. The bill would outlaw a new billing system proposed by Henifin earlier this month. Lumumba watched the debate from a public gallery with other spectators.

    ___

    Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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  • California snowpack off to great start amid severe drought

    California snowpack off to great start amid severe drought

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The snowpack covering California’s mountains is off to one of its best starts in 40 years, officials announced Tuesday, raising hopes that the drought-stricken state could soon see relief in the spring when the snow melts and begins to refill parched reservoirs.

    Roughly a third of California’s water each year comes from melted snow in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state. The state has built a complex system of canals and dams to capture that water and store it in huge reservoirs so it can be used the rest of the year when it doesn’t rain or snow.

    That is why officials closely monitor how deep the snow is in the mountains — and Tuesday was the first formal snow survey of the winter, a sort of Groundhog Day event where Californians get their first glimpse of how helpful the winter might be. Statewide, snowpack is at 174% of the historical average for this year, the third-best measurement in the past 40 years. Even more snow is expected later this week and over the weekend, giving officials hope for a wet winter the state so desperately needs.

    But a good start doesn’t guarantee a good finish. Last year, the statewide snowpack was at 160% of average at the first survey. What followed where the three driest months ever recorded in California. By April 1 — when the Sierra snowpack is supposed to be at its peak — the snow was just 38% of historic average.

    That history prompted muted optimism from state officials on Tuesday.

    “While we see a terrific snowpack — and that in and of itself may be an opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief — we are by no means out of the woods when it comes to drought,” Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said Tuesday after a ceremonial snow measurement in the community of Phillips, just west of Lake Tahoe.

    This winter’s promising start was aided by a spate of strong storms last month, most notably on New Year’s Eve, when much of the state was drenched in heavy rain causing floods that killed one person and damaged a levee system in Sacramento County.

    That storm was warmer, so it brought more rain than snow. Two more powerful storms are expected to hit the state this week, and these will be much colder. The National Weather Service says the mountains could get up to 5 feet (1.52 meters) of snow between the two storms.

    While the precipitation seemed out-of-character for the parched state, it reflects the type of rainfall the state would expect to see during a normal winter but that has been absent in recent drought-driven years.

    In Southern California, weather forecasters said “all systems go” for a major storm to sweep over the area Wednesday and Thursday, with peak intensity occurring from midnight to noon Thursday.

    Strong winds will add to impressive storm dynamics “setting the stage for a massive rainfall event” across south-facing coastal mountains, especially the Santa Ynez range in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, forecasters said.

    That could cause dangerous conditions. On Jan. 9, 2018, the community of Montecito on the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains was ravaged by a massive debris flow that killed 23 people when a downpour fell on a fresh wildfire burn scar.

    As California braced for more wet days ahead, heavy snow and freezing rain dumped on the upper Midwest on Tuesday, prompting the closure of the Sioux Falls Regional Airport in South Dakota and closing parts of Interstates 90 and 29. Meanwhile, heavy rain and thunderstorms threatened to cause flash flooding in Mississippi.

    The storms in California still aren’t enough to officially end the drought, now entering its fourth year. Most of the state’s reservoirs are still well below their capacity, with Lake Shasta 34% full and Lake Oroville just 38% full. It takes even longer for underground aquifers to refill, with groundwater providing about 38% of the state’s water supply each year.

    “We know that it’ll take quite a bit of time and water to recover this amount of storage, which is why we don’t say that the drought is over once it starts raining,” said Jeanine Jones, drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources.

    But back-to-back-to-back powerful storms have left many Californians preparing for the worst. In San Francisco, crews were rushing to clear trash, leaves and silt that clogged some of the city’s 25,000 storm drains during Saturday’s downpour before the next storm hits later this week.

    The National Weather Service is predicting up to 6 inches (15 cm) of rain in San Francisco with winds of speeds up to 30 mph (48 kph) with gusts of 60 mph (96 kph).

    Mayor London Breed said city workers may not have enough time to clean all the storm drains before Wednesday and asked the public to prepare by getting sandbags to prevent flooding, avoiding unnecessary travel and only calling 911 in a life-or-death emergency.

    City officials had distributed 8,500 sandbags as of Tuesday, asking residents to only get them if they have experienced flooding in the past. Tink Troy, who lives in South San Francisco, picked up some sandbags from the city’s public works department on Tuesday.

    “They said (Saturday’s storm) was going to be bad, and it was really bad. Now they’re saying this one’s going to be worse. So I want to make sure I’m prepared and not having to do this when it’s pouring rain tomorrow,” she said.

    ———

    This story has been updated to correct that the past three years have been the driest ever recorded dating back to 1896, not 1986.

    ———

    Associated Press reporters John Antczak contributed from Los Angeles. AP writers Olga Rodriguez and Haven Daley contributed from San Francisco.

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  • Even Mississippi lawmaker feels strain of Jackson water woes

    Even Mississippi lawmaker feels strain of Jackson water woes

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    JACKSON, Miss. — In Mississippi’s capital city, where intermittent periods without running water have become a fact of life for residents, a new disruption to the long-troubled water system persists just days before lawmakers are set to arrive for the state’s 2023 legislative session.

    Amid frigid weather that upended infrastructure across the Deep South, pipes in Jackson broke and the city’s water distribution system failed to produce adequate pressure. Crews have spent days working to identify leaks, but pressure still hasn’t been fully restored and a boil water notice remained in place Friday.

    City leaders said the water system remains vulnerable to weather-related disruptions, and Jackson-area legislators face the prospect of returning home from the Capitol building each evening without access to water in their homes.

    Democratic state Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr., who has represented south Jackson since 2019, was preparing for the Legislature’s upcoming return to session on January 3. Then, on Dec. 24 — just three months after a breakdown in Jackson’s water system left many in the city of about 150,000 without water to drink, cook, bathe and flush toilets — it happened again.

    On Christmas Eve, after the last of Crudup’s running water went down the drain, his spirits sunk along with it.

    “I’m normally very optimistic in pretty much all situations, but this latest water situation is getting the best of me,” Crudup wrote in a Dec. 26 social media post. “Y’all pray for me and my Jackson neighbors. I know if I’m struggling, others are also.”

    Local officials are contending with an “old, crumbling system that continues to offer challenge after challenge,” said Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. The city’s latest water woes follow a 2021 winter storm that left people without running water for days after pipes froze. The water system partially collapsed again in late August after flooding overwhelmed one of the city’s water treatment plants.

    In early September, Crudup could have often been seen handing out cases of bottled water as the late summer sun baked the parking lot of the New Horizon Church, which his father, Rev. Ronnie Crudup Sr., founded in 1987. His t-shirt of choice during those long afternoons was emblazoned with the motto he applied to the task at hand: “Embrace the grind.”

    On September 15, water pressure was restored to most of the city and the citywide boil water notice was temporarily lifted, only for issues to resume three months later. Crudup began to feel the burden of successive periods in which a basic necessity became a scarce resource for his family and his constituents.

    “As a man, how am I to take care of my family in the midst of this? As a political leader, how do I serve my constituents? All of my feelings were internalized and I didn’t have any method of getting all that out,” Crudup told The Associated Press.

    After Crudup’s brother saw his Dec. 26 social media post, he picked up the phone with a set of questions.

    “Why are you frustrated? Why are you feeling this way?” Crudup recounts his brother asking. “By him asking the right questions, I was able to talk myself through it.”

    Crudup said he wants Jackson’s residents, some of whom spent the Christmas holiday looking for a place to shower, to avoid what he called “internalizing the burden.” At New Horizon Church, Crudup works closely with his father, and together they’ve talked through the strain of seeing their neighbors at the mercy of an unreliable water system.

    “You’ve got a lot of children who aren’t brushing their teeth and all these other things. Particularly dealing with a lot of the least of these who don’t have the kind of resources he or I, or other people have, it weighs on him,” Crudup Sr. said. “And we do talk about that.”

    The $600 million in federal money that Jackson is set to receive for its water system has the potential to “revitalize a whole lot of the economic circumstances,” that have hindered necessary structural repairs, Crudup Sr. said.

    Ted Henifin, the manager appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to help fix the long-troubled water system, said he intends to make substantial progress over a one-year period on a list of projects that will protect the city from future disruptions.

    Until then, Crudup Jr. said he will encourage Jackson residents to talk through their frustrations, just like he did.

    “People are really stepping in to help their neighbors, not only physically but mentally,” he said. “We know there will be better days ahead, it’s just about making it through this last point.”

    ———

    Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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  • Conferees told Colorado River action ‘absolutely critical’

    Conferees told Colorado River action ‘absolutely critical’

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    LAS VEGAS — The first weeks of 2023 will be crucial for Southwest U.S. states and water entities to agree how to use less water from the drought-stricken and fast-shrinking Colorado River, a top federal water manager said Friday.

    “The coming three months are absolutely critical,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau told the Colorado River Users Association conferees ending three-day annual meetings in Las Vegas.

    “To be clear, the challenge is extraordinary,” Beaudreau said of a withering two-decade Western drought that scientists now attribute to long-term, human-caused climate change. “The science tells us it’s our new reality.”

    Beaudreau closed the conference with a call for water managers, administrators and individuals throughout the West “to develop solutions to help us all address the crisis.”

    The first deadline is next Tuesday, when the federal Bureau of Reclamation finishes taking public comment on an effort expected to yield a plan by summer about how to use at least 15% less river water split among recipients in seven Western U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes and Mexico.

    States have until the end of January to come to an agreement. A preliminary report is expected in the spring.

    At stake is drinking water for 40 million people; hydroelectric power for regional markets; and irrigation for farmers tilling millions of acres of former desert, producing most of the nation’s winter vegetables.

    Options range from voluntary agreements among competing interests to use less, to draconian top-down federal cuts in water deliveries — perhaps affecting cities including Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego.

    The problem was demonstrated again and again since Wednesday in new data and charts at workshops and panels: Less water flows into the river in the so-called Upper Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming than is drawn from it by the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada.

    The states share water under an interstate agreement reached 100 years ago that overestimated the amount of water the basin receives annually, mostly through snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains.

    In recent years, as drought has progressed, interim agreements for Lower Basin states to share cutbacks have been enacted. Arizona farmers have been the most affected.

    But unrelenting drought has dropped the river’s largest reservoirs to unprecedented low levels. Combined, Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell formed by Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line were at 92% capacity in 1999. Today, they are at 26%.

    River water managers at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation warn that the surface level of Lake Powell could drop so low in the next few months that intakes to hydropower turbines at Glen Canyon Dam could go dry.

    The words “dead pool” surfaced this week as officials described the possibility that lake levels could shrink so much that neither dam would be able to release water downstream.

    Questions surfaced while ideas were floated including lining and covering canals — along with a call from the Las Vegas-area’s top water manager for at least an accounting of how much water is lost to seepage and evaporation.

    Most discussions, however, focused on conservation to keep water levels up at the two reservoirs.

    Last month, 30 agencies that supply water to homes and businesses throughout the region joined the Las Vegas area in restricting decorative lawns that no one walks on.

    This week, Upper Basin states announced a program to pay farmers to fallow fields so they would need less water.

    “I can feel the anxiety and the uncertainty in this room, and in the basin, as we look at the river and the hydrology that we face,” said Camille Touton, the Bureau of Reclamation commissioner with the power to act if water users don’t.

    “If a solution is not developed by the basin, Commissioner Touton will figure it out for us,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona and a former astronaut who spoke fondly Friday of his view from space of the Colorado River flowing through the Grand Canyon.

    Delegates from Mexico and the International Boundary and Water Commission also were among speakers at the conference-closing at the Caesars Palace resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

    “There are a lot of questions; the what, the how,” Touton said, before ending — using Spanish and then English — with encouragement to, “let’s get this done together.”

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  • Bali’s water crisis threatens local culture, UNESCO sites

    Bali’s water crisis threatens local culture, UNESCO sites

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    JATILUWIH, Indonesia (AP) — Far from Bali’s beaches and hotels, farmer I Ketut Jata stands on a mountainside, staring at terraced land that is too dry to grow the rice his family has long relied on for food and income.

    “It is no longer possible to work in the fields as a farmer,” he says.

    Bali’s water crisis is worsening from tourism development, population growth and water mismanagement, experts and environmental groups warn. Water shortages already are affecting UNESCO sites, wells, food production and Balinese culture and experts say the situation will deteriorate further if existing water control policies are not enforced across the island.

    A tropical, volcanic island in the center of Indonesia’s archipelago, Bali relies on water from three main sources: crater lakes, rivers and shallow groundwater. A unique traditional irrigation system, called the “subak,” distributes water through a network of canals, dams and tunnels.

    The subak, made a UNESCO site in 2012, is central to Balinese culture, representing the Balinese Hindu philosophy of “Tri Hita Karana”— harmony between people, nature and the spiritual realm.

    “This is one of the very special cases of living landscapes in Asia,” said Feng Jing, who works with UNESCO in Bangkok.

    Pressures are severely straining the subak and other water resources, says Putu Bawa, project manager for the Bali Water Protection program, led by a Bali-based nongovernment organization, the IDEP Foundation.

    The island’s population jumped more than 70% from 1980 to 2020, to 4.3 million people, according to government census data. Tourism growth has been even more explosive: Less than 140,000 foreign visitors came to the island in 1980. By 2019, there were more than 6.2 million foreign and 10.5 million domestic tourists.

    With the tourism boom, Bali’s economy has prospered — at a cost. Rice fields the subak once coursed through have been turned into golf courses and water parks, while forests that naturally collect water and are vital to the subak have been felled for new villas and hotels, Bawa said.

    Stroma Cole of the University of Westminster, who has researched tourism’s impact on Bali’s water supplies, says another issue is that the water table is dropping because of Bali’s residents and businesses rely on unregulated wells or boreholes for clean water, instead of government-owned piped supplies.

    “At the moment, it is the cheapest source of water for people to use,” Cole said. “So why wouldn’t you use that?”

    In less than a decade, Bali’s water table has sunk more than 50 meters (164 feet) in some areas, according to data provided by IDEP. Wells are running dry or have been fouled with salt water, particularly in the island’s south.

    Bali does have regulations — such as water licenses and taxes on water used — that are meant to manage the island’s water supplies, but there’s no enforcement, Cole said.

    “The rules which exist are excellent rules, but they are not enforced” she said.

    Bali’s municipal water agency and Bali’s department of public works did not respond to requests for comment.

    The dire impact of the water crisis can be seen in Jatiluwih, in northwestern Bali, where farmers tend to the island’s largest rice terraces.

    For generations lush green rice terraces have relied on the subak system for irrigation. But in the past decade, farmers have had to import and pump water through white plastic pipes to irrigate the fields.

    Back in central Bali, Jata said he tried planting cloves, which require less water. But the land — which is ideal for rice — and a lack of subak water thwarted that plan.

    “In the past, when the subak was active, the water was still good,” Jata said. “But so far there have been no results … all the cloves are dead.”

    Other Bali farmers say they can only get one rice harvest instead of two or three a year due to water disruptions, according to Cole’s research. That could reduce food production on the island.

    When Indonesia closed its borders at the height of the pandemic, Bali’s tourism dropped drastically. Environmentalists hoped the closure would allow the island’s wells to recharge. IDEP is currently installing sensors in wells across the island to better research monitor water levels.

    But development across the island has continued, including a new government-backed toll road that activists say will further disrupt the subak system. New hotels, villas and other businesses are adding to demand.

    Tourism is key to Bali but there also should be better enforcement and increased monitoring to protect the island’s water resources, Bawa said. “We need to do this together for the sake of the survival of the island.”

    ___

    Associated Press photojournalist Tatan Syuflana contributed from Indonesia.

    ___

    Follow Victoria Milko on Twitter: @thevmilko

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Organic livestock farmers, hit by rising prices, seek help

    Organic livestock farmers, hit by rising prices, seek help

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    WHITINGHAM, Vt. — Organic dairy and other livestock farmers are seeking emergency federal aid as they grapple with skyrocketing organic feed costs, steep fuel and utility expenses as well as the consequences of drought in many parts of the country.

    Two dozen U.S. senators and representatives wrote to U.S. Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack this week asking for emergency assistance for these farms. National and regional organic farming groups have also reached out to the department and the heads of the congressional committees.

    Organic dairy farmer Abbie Corse, whose more than 150-year-old family farm is located in the southern Vermont town of Whittingham, said she doesn’t know what the future of the farm will look like.

    “If a farm like ours is questioning how we’re going to keep going if something doesn’t change, I don’t know how we think there’s a future for anybody,” said Corse, 40, who farms with her mother and father.

    On top of the high feed, energy and fuel costs organic farmers are facing, labor is a pressing challenge for The Corse Farm Dairy, which has a herd of about 90 and sells its milk to Organic Valley, an international milk cooperative based in LaFarge, Wisconsin. If anyone is unable to work, the family doesn’t have backup to keep the farm running.

    “We are a medical emergency away from selling our herd,” she said.

    In May of this year, prices for organic soybeans in the U.S., used as feed on organic farms, soared to $40.52 per bushel, an increase of nearly 110% from January 2021, according to the letter the members of Congress sent to Vilsack on Monday.

    Feed costs normally average over half of organic dairy and poultry farmers’ total production costs “but dramatic increases year-over-year in organic feedstuffs are now creating unsustainable circumstances that could lead to farm closures, reduced competition and ultimately, limited consumer choice,” the letter said.

    The war in Ukraine and the Agriculture Department’s discontinuation of the National Organic Program recognition agreement with India has reduced imported grain supplies and pushed up prices, officials said.

    The drought in the West and other areas of the country has caused California, the country’s top dairy state, to have its driest three-year stretch on record and, this summer, challenged farmers in the Northeast. Western forages have been depleted and organic alfalfas, hays and sileages are in limited supply and nearly doubled in price, said Albert Straus, the founder and CEO of Straus Family Creamery in Marin County. The creamery has formed a crisis coalition of organic dairy farms, processors and brands in the West to petition for emergency drought relief.

    California has lost 10 organic dairies in the last several months and as many as 50 are projected to go out of business if no relief comes in the next couple of months, said Straus. Twelve farms had provided organic milk to the creamery until one recently went out of business, he said.

    “I’m concerned that the viability of these farms and the future of our communities is at risk,” Straus said.

    U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he’s heard from Vermont organic dairy farmers, companies that buy their milk and the state’s agriculture secretary about “the severe financial pressure” organic dairies are facing.

    While Leahy, a Democrat, said the longer term solution must be found in more stable markets and a risk management program that works for organic dairy, he’s confident “that the federal government will find an approach to provide temporary support to our struggling organic dairy farm families.”

    A spokesperson said the Agriculture Department “is exploring avenues to address the challenges faced by organic dairy farmers, while also pursuing ongoing work to support organic and transitioning farmers through USDA programs.”

    For Kathie Arnold, who farms with her son at Twin Oaks Dairy in the central New York town of Truxton, this is likely one of the most financially difficult periods she has seen since the farm became organic in 1998. They’re going to survive, but for other younger farmers, who bought their farms in recent years and have debt to pay off monthly, “they’re not going to be able to weather this storm,” Arnold said.

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  • Nation’s largest water supplier declares drought emergency

    Nation’s largest water supplier declares drought emergency

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    LOS ANGELES — The nation’s largest water supplier has declared a drought emergency for all of Southern California, clearing the way for potential mandatory water restrictions early next year that could impact 19 million people.

    The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides water to 26 different agencies that supply major population centers like Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

    It doesn’t rain much in Southern California, so the district imports about half of its water from the Colorado River and the northern Sierra Nevada via the State Water Project — a complex system of dams, canals and reservoirs that provides drinking water for much of the state.

    It’s been so dry the past three years that those water deliveries have hit record lows. Earlier this year, the district declared a drought emergency for the agencies that mostly depend on the State Water Project, which covers about 7 million people.

    On Tuesday, the board voted to extended that declaration to cover all Southern California water agencies. They called on agencies to immediately reduce how much water they import. By April, the board will decide whether to make those cuts mandatory if the drought continues.

    “Some Southern Californians may have felt somewhat protected from these extreme conditions over the past few years. They shouldn’t anymore. We are all affected,” said Gloria D. Gray, chair of the Metropolitan Water District’s Board.

    State officials recently announced that water agencies like Metropolitan will only get 5% of their requested supplies for the start of 2023 due to lower reservoir levels. Some agencies may get a little bit more if its necessary for drinking, sanitation or other health and safety concerns.

    The drought declaration comes as Colorado River water managers are meeting in Las Vegas to discuss growing concerns about the river’s future after more than two decades of drought. Scientists say climate change has contributed to sustained warmer and drier weather in the West, threatening water supplies. The river’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border — are each about one-quarter full.

    In California, despite a recent run of storms that have dumped heavy rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley, reservoirs are all well below average for this time of year.

    “I think Metropolitan is being very proactive in doing this,” said Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. “It’s really the right thing to do.”

    Up to 75% of all water used in Southern California is for irrigating yards and gardens. Water agencies dependent upon imported water from the state have had restrictions for much of the year, including limiting outdoor watering to just one day per week.

    Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for residents and businesses to cut their water use by 15%. But since then, residents have reduced water use by just 5.2%, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

    Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Water District is investing in what could become the world’s largest water recycling system. Known as Pure Water, the initiative would recycle wastewater instead of sending it out into the ocean.

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  • Colorado River water users convening amid crisis concerns

    Colorado River water users convening amid crisis concerns

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    LAS VEGAS — Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus this week for state and federal water administrators, tribal officials, farmers, academics and business representatives meeting about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River.

    The Colorado River Water Users Association conference, normally a largely academic three-day affair, comes at a time of growing concern about the river’s future after more than two decades of record drought attributed to climate change.

    “The Colorado River system is in a very dire condition,” Dan Bunk, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water manager, declared during internet presentations streamed Nov. 29 and Dec. 2 that invited public comment about possible actions.

    “Flows during the past 23-year period … are the lowest in the past 120 years and (among) the lowest in more than 1,200 years,” Bunk told the webinar audience. The deadline for public submissions is Dec. 20 for a process expected to yield a final report by summer.

    Bunk said the two largest reservoirs on the river — Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona state line and Lake Powell formed by the Glen Canyon Dam on the Arizona-Utah line — are at unprecedented low levels. Lake Mead was at 100% capacity in mid-1999. Today it is 28% full. Lake Powell, last full in June 1980, is at 25%.

    Scientists attribute extended drought to warmer and drier weather in the West to long-term, human-caused climate change. The effect has been dramatic on a vast river basin where the math never added up: The amount of water it receives doesn’t meet the amount that is promised.

    Lake Powell’s drop last March to historically low water levels raised worries about losing the ability — perhaps within the next few months — to produce hydropower that today serves about 5 million customers in seven states. If power production ceases at Glen Canyon Dam, rural electric cooperatives, cities and tribal utilities would be forced to seek more expensive options.

    Reclamation water managers responded with plans to hold back more water in Lake Powell but warned that Lake Mead water levels would drop.

    Meanwhile, bodies have surfaced as Lake Mead’s shoreline recedes, including the corpse of a man who authorities say was shot, maybe in the 1970s, and stuffed in a barrel. He remains unidentified. The gruesome discoveries renewed interest in the lore of organized crime and the early days of the Las Vegas Strip, just a 30-minute drive from the lake.

    The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the seven states that are part of the Colorado River Basin — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. Despite deadlines, discussions have not resulted in agreements.

    Bureau officials use the image of pouring tea from one cup to another to describe how water from Rocky Mountain snowmelt is captured in Lake Powell, then released downriver through the Grand Canyon to Lake Mead. About 70% is allocated for irrigation, sustaining a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry that supplies 90% of U.S. winter vegetables.

    The two lakes, combined, were at 92% capacity in 1999, Bunk noted. Today, they are at 26%.

    “Due to critically low current reservoir conditions, and the potential for worsening drought which threatens critical infrastructure and public health and safety … operational strategies must be revisited,” Bunk said.

    This year’s meeting of water recipients begins Wednesday at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The event theme, “A New Century for the Colorado River Compact,” marks 100 years since a 1922 interstate agreement divvied water shares among interests in the seven states now home to 40 million people and millions of farmed acres.

    Agricultural interests got the biggest share. Native American tribes weren’t included and were referenced in one sentence: “Nothing in this compact shall be construed as affecting the obligations of the United States of America to Indian tribes.”

    It wasn’t until 1944 that a separate agreement promised a share of water to Mexico.

    Today, tribes are at the table and a Mexico delegation is due to attend the conference. U.S. cities that receive river water include Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego.

    Many call conservation crucial. Among conference topic titles are “Messaging in a More Water-Challenged world” and “The Next 100 Years Begins Now.”

    “The ongoing drought is a stark reminder that water conservation is not just smart planning but an absolute necessity to save the life of the Colorado River,” Amelia Flores, chairwoman of Colorado River Indian Tribes, said ahead of the event. The tribal reservation in western Arizona includes more than 110 miles (177 kilometers) of Colorado River shoreline.

    “Whether it’s fallowing fields, upgrading irrigation canals, or modernizing farming methods,” Flores said, “decisions made now will have lasting consequences.”

    Throughout the river basin, warnings have increased and measures have tightened markedly in 2022.

    In April, water administrators in Southern California imposed a one-day-a-week outdoor watering limit on more than 6 million people.

    Last month, 30 agencies that supply water to homes and businesses throughout the region joined the Las Vegas area in restricting the planting of decorative lawns that no one walks on.

    Adel Hagekhalil, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California general manager, warned this month in a statement that another dry winter could force officials to make voluntary measures mandatory.

    The four states at the headwaters of the river — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — also recently announced they plan to ask Congress to let them use federal money through 2026 for a program dubbed “strategic conservation.” It would resurrect a 2015 to 2018 pilot program that paid farmers to fallow land to cut water use.

    Camille Touton, bureau commissioner, tempered a warning during the water webinars about federal intervention — she called it “moving forward on the initiation of administrative actions” — with a vow to “find a collective solution to the challenges that we face today.”

    Touton and two top Interior Department officials are scheduled to address the conference on Friday.

    ———

    Associated Press journalists Brittany Peterson in Denver, Sam Metz in Salt Lake City and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.

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  • Peru’s president asks Cabinet to take anti-corruption pledge

    Peru’s president asks Cabinet to take anti-corruption pledge

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    LIMA, Peru — Peru’s newest president, Dina Boluarte, swore in her Cabinet on Saturday just three days after becoming the country’s first female head of state and asked each minister to pledge not to be corrupt while in office.

    The 17 ministers picked by Boluarte, who on Wednesday was elevated from vice president to replace the ousted Pedro Castillo as the country’s leader, will be key to further inflaming or calming a South American country experiencing a seemingly endemic political crisis.

    Boluarte presented her centrist government amid demonstrations across Peru calling for her resignation and the scheduling of general elections to replace her and Congress.

    She asked each of the nine men and eight women to swear or promise to perform their duties “loyally and faithfully without committing acts of corruption.” All Cabinet members knelt before her and wore red-and-white sashes tied around their waists. A large crucifix was placed in front of most Cabinet members when they responded to Boluarte’s question.

    Fluent in Spanish and Quechua, Boluarte was elected as vice president on the presidential ticket that brought the center-left Castillo to power last year. She was minister of development and social inclusion during the 17-month administration of Castillo, a rural schoolteacher with no previous political experience.

    Boluarte, 60, replaced Castillo after he stunned the country by ordering the dissolution of Congress, which in turn dismissed him for “permanent moral incapacity.” He was arrested on charges of rebellion. His failed move against the opposition-led Congress came hours before lawmakers were set to start a third impeachment attempt against him.

    She addressed the nation after Saturday’s ceremony and promised Peruvians a government open to dialogue. She said her team will work for the country’s economic reactivation and social justice and walk “the path of progress.”

    “I want to assure you that I have worked hard to form a ministerial Cabinet for unity and democratic consolidation (and) that is at the level of what the country requires,” Boluarte said. “… The national unity government will be for all Peruvians.”

    Castillo cycled through more than 70 Cabinet members during his administration. Some of them have been accused of wrongdoing.

    Boluarte has said she should be allowed to hold the office for the remaining 3 1/2 years of his term. But protesters are demanding new elections. Some of those demonstrating in favor of Castillo have called her a “traitor.”

    Boluarte’s Cabinet includes lawyers Pedro Angulo, an anti-corruption prosecutor who was named prime minister, and Alberto Otárola, who will serve as minister of defense, a job he held a decade ago. She also swore in Alex Contreras and Ana Gervasi as ministers of economy and foreign affairs, respectively. They both previously served as deputy ministers in those agencies.

    She is yet to appoint ministers of labor and transportation.

    On Saturday, several highways were still blocked by protesters calling for the closure of Congress, the resignation of Boluarte and new elections.

    “Congress has given us a kick and has mocked the popular vote,” said protester Mauro Sánchez in Lima, where police have used tear gas to end demonstrations that began Wednesday. “Let’s take to the streets, let’s not let ourselves be governed by this mafia-like congress.”

    Peru has had six presidents in the last six years, including three in a single week in 2020 when Congress flexed its impeachment powers.

    The power struggle in the country has continued as the Andes and its thousands of small farms struggle to survive the worst drought in a half-century. Without rain, farmers can’t plant potatoes, and the dying grass can no longer sustain herds of sheep, alpacas, vicuñas and llamas.

    The government also confirmed that in the past week, Peru has seen a fifth wave of COVID-19 infections. The country has recorded about 4.3 million infections and 217,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

    Boluarte lacks support in Congress. Like Castillo, she was kicked out in January of the far-left party with which the pair was elected as president and vice president.

    Omar Coronel, political science professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, said an important variable for Boluarte’s government will be her ability to manage the waves of discontent and generate a coalition in Congress that can sustain her but that at the same time “is not aberrational for the left.”

    ———

    Associated Press writer Franklin Briceño contributed to this report.

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